Okay, deep breath, long rambling background post..
Starting last year our high school community theater program was budgeted $5000 per year for technology upgrades and replacement. Due to the 700mhz
DTV switchover I had to buy 8 replacement 600mhz wireless
lapel mics, bought a small Whirlwind cable reel to stop
cord tangling and damage, and some other repair stuff.
This year I'm replacing the 40 yr old
stage circuit breaker panel to deal with the breakers popping and all the lights going out during a show, and I'm planning to run about six 30A 120v circuits this year yet on the ceiling for lighting, and that's the end of this year's budget.
The existing American DJ
dimmer packs should be replaced, the PAR-cans are battered and dented, all the
gel frames are gone, and the frame holders are missing or broken... gels are usually duct-taped on. All the lighting is temporary and usually only gets hung in the last week of
play practice, and taken down a week after the Christmans program, so there is no time to really work with them and adjust them properly or get gels set up right. Lighting scene control is mostly non-existent due to lack of time to practice with the lights, though we have an ADJ Scene Setter to do it.
I am trying to move in the direction of permanent ceiling lighting in a cage, to reduce custodial work, make the lighting more available for practices, stop the
circuit overloading, and protect the lighting from gym ball damage.
,
As far as
fixture heat on the actors goes, I am not an expert, and I have no former theater experience, so I don't know what people with a REAL theater normally have to deal with. I just know I can feel the heat of all those lamps pointed at the
stage, and I know it can get uncomfortably hot over time, wearing costumes under those lights.
I had been looking at the
LED fixtures and bought a few ADJ
LED 64 Pro's for testing, but they are very dim compared to even just one of our
current 300W MFL lamps and I figure we'd need a sea of 72 of them at $300 a pop to just match the existing output. So it would appear I should resell them on eBay and go with more traditional high-output
incandescent lighting, because we can not afford dim
LED technology in its
current state.
(See this? Yeah, I added this section. That's our school computer lab.)
Wikipedia: LED_stage_lighting : Disadvantages
LED stage lighting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
,
Even with the 24 300W PAR-54 fixtures, the directors are often complaining about the scene not being bright enough. The
ETC S4 at 575w is said to be similar in output to a PAR-64 1000W, so perhaps 12 S4's would
cover our needs rather than the 24 PARs we have now.
We've had nothing but Medium Flood for years, but some beam flexibility and
gobo focus capabilities would be nice, so probably the S4
Zoom is the way to go, even if someone here hates them.
Though on our budget it would probably have to be the S4 Junior /
Zoom rather than the full size one. I don't know yet if the Jr is as bright as the big version.
,
I have also been contemplating adding sound absorbing panels on the back wall to reduce annoying echo
reverb in the
gymnatorium.
I don't think a $500
fixture is going to work in this environment, unless we spend several years gradually replacing them. If I get ceiling
fixture protection cages, that's another chunk out of the limited budget.
So, I am trying to use this limited budget as efficiently and effectively as possible, because it could disappear before I can get everything done that I want to accomplish.
EDIT FOLLOWUP:
* To clarify, the dimmers and wiring are on track to be upgraded before the next's theater program starts this next fall.
* I am not in charge of everything, and I'm only just trying to help out with a small area dealing with lighting and sound. Someone else is handling the curtain replacement, and due to the cost it is not going to come from this smaller budget.